One of the most characteristic features of the Athenian democracy was the large rôle assigned to the lot in the selection of officials. For example, in Aristotle’s day the nine archons were chosen by lot from five hundred men, who had themselves been previously chosen by lot, fifty from each of the ten tribes. Whatever may have been the other objects of this system, at least one was the prevention of bribery and manipulation; and without a doubt this was the motive which led to the use of the lot in theatrical matters. Thus the judges in the contests seem, though the scheme is largely conjectural and depends upon insufficient notices, to have been selected and to have rendered decisions somewhat as follows: Some days before the festival a certain number of names was taken from each tribe and deposited in ten sealed urns in the Acropolis. Just before the contest began, these vessels were brought into the theater and the presiding archon drew one name from each tribal urn. The men so chosen came forward and swore to judge truly. When the performances were over, each judge wrote down his verdict and the ten ballots were placed in a single urn. The archon now drew out half of these, which were alone used in arriving at the ultimate decision! So cumbersome a system can be justified only by its results; and it must be allowed that, so far as we can now determine, no poet suffered any great injustice from its operation. The playwrights usually won whom later critics were unanimous in considering the greatest. Each of the tragic triad wrote about one hundred plays: Aeschylus, whose career fell before the admission of tragedy to the Lenaea, gained thirteen victories at the City Dionysia; Sophocles, eighteen City and at least two Lenaean victories; and Euripides, fifteen (or possibly only five) victories at both festivals (see p. 325, below). It must be remembered that several plays would be simultaneously crowned at each victory in tragedy (see p. 198, above). The most astounding reversal occurred when Philocles, Aeschylus’ mediocre nephew, defeated Sophocles’ didascalic group in which was included his _Oedipus the King_, perhaps the greatest tragedy of ancient times! However, this apparent lapse of judgment is possibly to be explained by the factor mentioned in the last paragraph, a parsimonious choregus.